Friday, August 15, 2008

Viacom is a big, fat copyright bully. To read more about this ridiculous situation with TheKnightShift vs. Viacom, see my YouTube profile.

Note to media: You are welcome to use this in broadcast. Just please mention "Nalts" or WillVideoforfood, and feel free to say something like "he's the most prolific viral video creators in the world that is one of the "most subscribed" comedians on YouTube. Kidding.

Seems a bit two-faced: on one hand, clamping down hard on infringers, but then stealing YouTube content with the other hand.

As we wrote yesterday [July 23, 2008] the House Judiciary Committee may mark-up the Orphan Works Bill this week.

Here's a short letter we're proposing for Committee members. Please feel free to modify it and use it as your own.

Dear Honorable ________________,

As an artist and a small business owner, I'm writing to oppose H.R. 5889, the Orphan Works Act of 2008 as currently drafted. Please support the amendments submitted jointly by the Illustrators' Partnership of America, the Artists Rights Society and the Advertising Photographers of America. Otherwise, please do not vote this bill out of committee until Congress can hold proper hearings into the harm it will do to small businesses, individual creators and ordinary citizens.

While I support a bill that would give libraries and museums a legitimate expansion of fair use, H.R. 5889 is far too broad. It would cause trillions of dollars of private property to be transferred into the control of a few corporate databases with no guarantee as to how these assets will be protected, used or abused. It will undermine the passive copyright protection that all citizens now enjoy - and that threatens individual creativity, freedom of expression and the right to privacy embodied in copyright law.

There is no reason for the reckless scope of this bill. It is based on a Copyright Office study of orphaned work. Yet it will permit the infringement of contemporary work by creators working in today's commercial markets - a subject the Copyright Office never studied. Its stated purpose is to let libraries and museums digitize their collections and let ordinary folks duplicate family photos. But these modest goals can be met with a modest expansion of Fair Use. I do not believe citizens should have to hand over their personal intellectual property to a few corporate special interests. The unintended consequences of this bill could be a rights grab of monumental proportions.

Please look behind the talking points of the special interests promoting the Orphan Works Act. Do not support a major revision of copyright law without an open, informed and transparent public debate.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

* Information via the Internet: Circulars, announcements, regulations, other related materials, and all copyright application forms are available from the Copyright Office Website at www.copyright.gov.

Information by telephone: For general information about copyright, call the Copyright Public Information Office at (202) 707-3000. The tty number is (202) 707-6737. Staff members are on duty from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, eastern time, Monday through Friday, except federal holidays. Recorded information is available 24 hours a day. Or, if you know which application forms and information circulars you want, you may request them 24 hours a day from the Forms and Publications Hotline at (202) 707-9100. You may leave a recorded message.

For a list of other material published by the Copyright Office, request Circular 2 [temporarily unavailable], Publications on Copyright.

The Copyright Public Information Office is open to the public 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday, eastern time, except federal holidays. The office is located in the Library of Congress, James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Avenue SE, Washington, DC, near the Capitol South Metro stop. Staff members are available to answer questions, provide circulars, and accept applications for registration. Access for disabled individuals is at the front door on Independence Avenue SE.

The Copyright Office is not permitted to give legal advice. If information or guidance is needed on matters such as disputes over the ownership of a copyright, suits against possible infringers, the procedure for getting a work published, or the method of obtaining royalty payments, it may be necessary to consult an attorney.

Note: The Copyright Office provides a free electronic mailing list, NewsNet, that issues periodic email messages on the subject of copyright. The messages alert subscribers to hearings, deadlines for comments, new and proposed regulations, new publications, and other copyright-related subjects of interest. NewsNet is not an interactive discussion group. To subscribe, send a message to listserv@loc.gov. In the body of the message say “subscribe uscopyright”. Or fill in the subscription form online at www.copyright.gov/newsnet. You will receive a standard welcoming message indicating that your subscription to NewsNet has been accepted.

*The records of the Copyright Office are open for inspection and searching by the public. Moreover, on request and payment of a fee,* the Copyright Office will search its records for you. For information on searching the Office records concerning the copyright status or ownership of a work, request Circular 22, How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work, and Circular 23, The Copyright Card Catalog and the Online Files of the Copyright Office.

Copyright Office records in machine-readable form cataloged from January 1, 1978, to the present, including registration and renewal information and recorded documents, are now available for searching from the Copyright Office website at www.copyright.gov.

All remittances should be in the form of drafts, that is, checks, money orders, or bank drafts, payable to Register of Copyrights. Do not send cash. Drafts must be redeemable without service or exchange fee through a U. S. institution, must be payable in U. S. dollars, and must be imprinted with American Banking Association routing numbers. International Money Orders and Postal Money Orders that are negotiable only at a post office are not acceptable.

If a check received in payment of the filing fee is returned to the Copyright Office as uncollectible, the Copyright Office will cancel the registration and will notify the remitter. The filing fee for processing an original, supplementary, or renewal claim is nonrefundable, whether or not copyright registration is ultimately made. Do not send cash. The Copyright Office cannot assume any responsibility for the loss of currency sent in payment of copyright fees. For further information, request Circular 4 [temporarily unavailable], Copyright Fees.

Certain Fees and Services May Be Charged to a Credit Card

Some fees may be charged by telephone and in person in the office. Others may only be charged in person in the office. Credit card payments are generally authorized only for services that do not require filing of applications or other materials. An exception is made for fees related to items that are hand-carried into the Public Information Office.

Certifications and Documents Section: These fees may be charged in person in the office or by phone: additional certificates; copies of documents and deposits; searching, locating and retrieving deposits; certifications; and expedited processing.

Public Information Office: These fees may only be charged in person in the office, not by phone: standard registration request forms; special handling requests for all standard registration requests; requests for services provided by the Certifications and Documents Section when the request is accompanied by a request for special handling; search requests for which a fee estimate has been provided; additional fee for each claim using the same deposit; full term retention fees; appeal fees; Secure Test processing fee; short fee payments when accompanied by a Remittance Due Notice; in-process retrieval fees; and online service providers fees.

Reference and Bibliography Section: Requests for searches on a regular or expedited basis can be charged to a credit card by phone.

Records Maintenance Unit: Computer time on COINS, printing from the Optical Disk, and photocopying can be charged in person in the office.

Fiscal Control Section: Deposit Accounts maintained by the Fiscal Control Section may be replenished by credit card. See Circular 5 [temporarily unavailable], How to Open and Maintain a Deposit Account in the Copyright Office.

NIE recordations and claims filed on Form GATT may be paid by credit card if the card number is included in a separate letter that accompanies the form.

for serials, works issued or intended to be issued in successive parts bearing numerical or chronological designations and intended to be continued indefinitely (periodicals, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, annuals, journals, etc.)

You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader ® installed on your computer to view and print the forms accessed on the Internet. Adobe Acrobat Reader may be downloaded free from Adobe Systems Incorporated through links from the same website from which the forms are available. Print forms head to head (top of page 2 is directly behind the top of page 1) on a single piece of good quality, 8½ × 11" white paper. To achieve the best quality copies of the application forms, use a laser printer.

Fill-In Forms Available

Most Copyright Office forms are available on the Copyright Office website in fill-in version. Go to http://www.copyright.gov/forms/ and follow the instructions. The fill-in forms allow you to enter information while the form is displayed on the screen by an Adobe Acrobat Reader product. You may then print the completed form and mail it to the Copyright Office. Fill-in forms provide a clean, sharp printout for your records and for filing with the Copyright Office.

*The following persons are legally entitled to submit an application form:

The author. This is either the person who actually created the work or, if the work was made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared.

The copyright claimant. The copyright claimant is defined in Copyright Office regulations as either the author of the work or a person or organization that has obtained ownership of all the rights under the copyright initially belonging to the author. This category includes a person or organization who has obtained by contract the right to claim legal title to the copyright in an application for copyright registration.

The owner of exclusive right(s). Under the law, any of the exclusive rights that make up a copyright and any subdivision of them can be transferred and owned separately, even though the transfer may be limited in time or place of effect. Theterm “copyright owner” with respect to any one of the exclusive rights contained in a copyright refers to the owner of that particular right. Any owner of an exclusive right may apply for registration of a claim in the work.

The duly authorized agent of such author, other copyright claimant, or owner of exclusive right(s). Any person authorized to act on behalf of the author, other copyright claimant, or owner of exclusive rights may apply for registration.

There is no requirement that applications be prepared or filed by an attorney.

Copyright Symbol

Why Copyright Protection?

"The primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of authors, but to promote the Progress of Science and Useful Arts. To this end, copyright assures authors the right to their original expression, but encourages others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by a work.

This result is neither unfair nor unfortunate.

It is the means by which copyright advances the progress of science and art."

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Disclaimer

Copyright Issues, a site dedicated to educating poets, writers, and artists about copyright issues and adding to the body of knowledge about this evolving legal area, is affiliated with PostFoetry.com, Poetry, Inc, Poets.net (website), and Poets.net (forum). We are NOT affiliated with any other literary or artist organization. Furthermore, we are not affiliated with any other online poetry site, forum, or print publication.*The purpose of this website is to offer general information about copyright issues and allow web users to arrive at their own conclusions. However, the webmaster is not a lawyer, so info is presented on an "as is" basis.*While Copyright Issues welcomes comments (which are subject to approval by admin), the administrator reserves the right to reject spam, unwanted advertising, copyright-infringing comments, hate speech, ethnic/racial intimidation, harassing/stalking posts, and libelous content.*This site is copyright 2008, by Jennifer Semple Siegel. Other works posted here are copyright by their respective authors or is in the public domain.*

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